Zollinger-Ellison syndrome is a disorder where increased levels of the hormone gastrin are produced, causing the stomach to produce excess hydrochloric acid. Often, the cause is a tumour of the pancreas producing the hormone gastrin. Gastrin then causes an excessive production of acid which can lead to peptic ulcers.

Gastrin works on stomach parietal cells causing them to secrete more hydrogen ions into the stomach lumen. In addition, gastrin acts as a trophic factor for parietal cells, causing parietal cell hyperplasia. Thus, there is an increase in the number of acid secreting cells and each of these cells produces acid at a higher rate. The increase in acidity contributes to the development of peptic ulcers in the stomach and duodenum. High acid levels lead to multiple ulcers in the stomach and small bowel.

Patients with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome may experience abdominal pain and diarrhea. The diagnosis is also suspected in patients without symptoms who have severe ulceration of the stomach and small bowel.

Gastrinomas may occur as single tumors or as multiple, small tumors. About one-half to two-thirds of single gastrinomas are malignant tumors that most commonly spread to the liver and lymph nodes near the pancreas and small bowel. Nearly 25 percent of patients with gastrinomas have multiple tumors as part of a condition called multiple endocrine neoplasia type I (MEN I). MEN I patients have tumors in their pituitary gland and parathyroid glands in addition to tumors of the pancreas.

ArchimedesArchimedes (287-212 bc), pre-eminent Greek mathematician and inventor, who wrote important works on plane and solid geometry, arithmetic, and mechanics.

Archimedes was born in Syracuse, Sicily, and educated in Alexandria, Egypt. In pure mathematics he anticipated many of the discoveries of modern science, such as the integral calculus, through his studies of the areas and volumes of curved solid figures and the areas of plane figures. He also proved that the volume of a sphere is two-thirds the volume of a cylinder that circumscribes the sphere.

In mechanics, Archimedes defined the principle of the lever and is credited with inventing the compound pulley. During his stay in Egypt he invented the hydraulic screw for raising water from a lower to a higher level. He is best known for discovering the law of hydrostatics, often called Archimedes' principle, which states that a body immersed in fluid loses weight equal to the weight of the amount of fluid it displaces. This discovery is said to have been made as Archimedes stepped into his bath and perceived the displaced water overflowing.

Archimedes spent the major part of his life in Sicily, in and around Syracuse. He did not hold any public office but devoted his entire lifetime to research and experiment. During the Roman conquest of Sicily, however, he placed his gifts at the disposal of the state, and several of his mechanical devices were employed in the defence of Syracuse. Among the war machines attributed to him are the catapult and—perhaps legendary—a mirror system for focusing the Sun's rays on the invaders' boats and igniting them.

After the capture of Syracuse during the Second Punic War, Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier who found him drawing a mathematical diagram in the sand. It is said that Archimedes was so absorbed in calculation that he offended the intruder merely by remarking, “Do not disturb my diagrams.” Several of his works on mathematics and mechanics survive, including Floating Bodies, The Sand Reckoner, Measurement of the Circle, Spirals, and Sphere and Cylinder. They all exhibit the rigour and imaginativeness of his mathematical thinking.

phys2104

A capacitor is an electrical device that can store energy in the electric field between a pair of closely-spaced conductors (called 'plates'). When voltage is applied to the capacitor, electric charges of equal magnitude, but opposite polarity, build up on each plate.

Capacitors are used in electrical circuits as energy-storage devices. They can also be used to differentiate between high-frequency and low-frequency signals and this makes them useful in electronic filters.

Capacitors are occasionally referred to as condensers. This is now considered an antiquated term.

Domagk, Gerhard Johannes Paul (1895-1964), German bacteriologist and pathologist who was responsible for the discovery of the first antibacterial drug. Domagk was born in 1895 in Lagow, Brandenburg. In 1927 he was made head of the Department of Experimental Pathology at IG Farbenindustrie in Elberfeld, and in 1929 he was also made Head of Bacteriology. In 1932, he demonstrated the antibacterial effects of a sulphonamide called prontosil in mice with streptococcal infections. Prontosil is a synthetic azo dye, and is also known as sulphamidochrysoidine. It has been shown that the drug dissociates in the living organism to liberate a sulphonamide radical, which has the desired antibacterial effect.

Domagk was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1939, but was unable to accept it until 1947, as Hitler had forbidden German citizens to accept the Nobel Prize. After World War II, Domagk continued his work on chemotherapy, introduced the use of thiosemicarbazone for the treatment of tuberculosis, and also worked on chemotherapy for cancer until his retirement in 1960.

In New York City in 1940, Enrico Fermi continued to conduct nuclear fission experiments at Columbia University. Fermi's team, including Leo Szilard and Walter Zinn, confirmed that absorption of a neutron by a uranium nucleus can cause the nucleus to split into two nearly equal parts, releasing several neutrons and enormous amounts of energy. The potential for a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction had become a strong possibility. ...from: http://www.anl.gov/Science_and_Technology/History/Anniversary_Frontiers/unisci.html#fermi

...........general name for a large group of granular igneous rocks, the intrusive equivalents of basalt, composed of plagioclase feldspar with a predominance of dark minerals, usually pyroxenes, hornblende, or olivine. The rocks are heavy, often greenish in colour. Gabbros make up the Black Cuillins on the island of Skye, Scotland, and occur in the highlands along the north shore of Lake Superior.

A series of the elements, inert gases that save money on electric costs.

"The halogens or halogen elements are a series of nonmetal elements from Group 17 (old-style: VII or VIIA; Group 7 IUPAC Style) of the periodic table, comprising fluorine, F, chlorine, Cl, bromine, Br, iodine, I, and astatine, At."

American physicist and government adviser, who directed the development of the first atomic bombs.

Oppenheimer was born in New York on April 22, 1904, and was educated at Harvard University and the universities of Cambridge and Göttingen. After serving with the International Education Board (1928-1929), he became a professor of physics at the University of California and the California Institute of Technology (1929-1947), where he built up large schools of theoretical physics. He was noted for his contributions relating to quantum theory, the theory of relativity, cosmic rays, positrons, and neutron stars.

During a leave of absence (1943-1945), Oppenheimer served as director of the atomic-bomb project at Los Alamos, New Mexico. His leadership and organizational skills earned him the Presidential Medal of Merit in 1946. In 1947 he became director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey, serving there until the year before his death. He was also chairman of the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) from 1947 to 1952 and served thereafter as an adviser. In 1954, however, he was suspended from this position on charges that his past association with Communists and so-called fellow travellers made him a poor security risk. This action reflected the political atmosphere of the time, as well as the dislike of some politicians and military figures for Oppenheimer's opposition to the development of the hydrogen bomb and his support of arms control; his loyalty was not really in doubt. Subsequently, efforts were made to clear his name, and in 1963 the AEC conferred on him its highest honour, the Enrico Fermi Award. Oppenheimer devoted his final years to the study of the relationship between science and society; he died in Princeton on February 18, 1967. His writings include Science and the Common Understanding (1954) and Lectures on Electrodynamics (published posthumously, 1970).

........part of the interior of the Earth, about 2,300 km (1,430 mi) thick. Even though temperatures are higher here, this part of the mantle is solid. Tremendous pressures keep the rock material from melting.

A magnifying glass is a single convex lens which is used to produce a magnified image of an object. The lens is usually mounted in a frame with a handle.

A magnifying glass works by creating a magnified virtual image of an object behind the lens. The distance between the lens and the object must be shorter than the focal length of the lens for this to occur. Otherwise, the image appears smaller and inverted, and can be used to project images onto surfaces.

Italian physician, pathologist, and microbiologist, born August 2, 1876, Perugia; died February 19, 1912, Pavia.

...short biography from:http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/2175.htmlAdelchi Negri was born in Perugia and studied medicine and surgery at Pavia University. While still a student he was assistant to Camillo Golgi (1843-1926) at the institute of pathology. He graduated 1900 and became Golgi's assistant. He was habilitated as lecturer in general pathology five years later, and in 1909 was appointed professor of bacteriology, thus becoming the first official teacher of that subject in Pavia. He became professor extraordinary in 1910.

Negri's first works were on histology, haematology, cytology, protozoology, and hygiene. From 1899 to 1902 he worked mainly on the structure of red blood corpuscles and the origin of blood platelets as well as the cytology of glandular structures in mammals and the changes which took place in blood elements during clotting.

In 1903, on the advice of Golgi, Negri began histological research to clarify the aetiology og rabies. On March 27, 1903, he announced to the Pavia Medical Society his fundamental scientific contribution of the rabies corpuscles - Negri's bodies. He was soon was able to see and demonstrate that the bodies which bear his name were a constant feature in the nervous system in animals and man infected with the disease.

Negri mistakenly regarded the bodies as parasitic protozoa and the pathological agent of rabies. Some months after Negri's discovery, however, Alfonso Di Vesta in Naples, and Paul Remlinger at Riffat Bey in Constantinople, showed that the etiological agent of rabies is a filterable virus.

Other contributions included work on bacillary dysentery, and his demonstration that vaccinia virus passed through bacterial filters then in use. During the last years of his life he became particularly interested in malaria and took a very active role in endeavours to eliminate it from Lombardy.

In 1906 Negri married his colleague Lina Luzzani and six years later, at the age of thirty-five, died of tuberculosis.

Obsidian, dark, semi-translucent volcanic glass of the same composition as rhyolite, produced when molten igneous rock (magma) pushes its way up to the Earth's surface as lava and cools so rapidly that its constituent ions do not have time to crystallize. Obsidian is usually black, but may also be red or brown. Because it is easy to shape by flaking, it was prized by early peoples, who used it to make weapons and tools.

Paca, common name for two species of large rodents found in forests from Mexico to central South America. The heavyset paca measures up to 80 cm (31 in) long and weighs up to 12 kg (26 lb). Its large head has bony cheek structures, and its brown fur is marked by white spots arranged in lines from front to rear. The animal lives in burrows near streams or marshy areas, and the usual litter of one or two young is born during the winter or early spring. Sometimes a second litter is born in July. The paca's flesh is considered delicious, and the possibility has been raised of breeding the animal for food. Scientific classification: Pacas belong to the family Dasyproctidae. The two species are classified as Agouti (or Cuniculus) paca and Agouti (or Cuniculus) taczanowskii.

Cholestyramine (Questran®): These resins used for sequestering bile acids in order to decrease cholesterol, can decrease gastrointestinal (GI) absorption of vitamin B12.It is unlikely that this interaction will deplete body stores of vitamin B12 unless there are other factors contributing to deficiency. In a group of children treated with cholestyramine for up to 2.5 years there was not any change in serum vitamin B12 levels. Routine supplements are not necessary.

Radar guns are used in some countries to detect speeding motorists. Here, a gun transmits waves at a given frequency (shown in blue) toward an oncoming car. Reflected waves (shown in red) return to the gun at a different frequency, depending on how fast the car being tracked is moving. A device in the gun compares the transmission frequency to the received frequency to determine the speed of the car. In this case, the high frequency of the reflected waves indicates the motorist in the red car is speeding.

Science Forum = A place to read and participate in learning about science and to exchange ideas theories and interesting facts , studies experiments results and and how things work in this universe.. Hee hee

Table Mountain, mountain overlooking Cape Town, South Africa. It is a distinctive flat-topped mountain 1,086 m (3,563 ft) high, flanked by Lion’s Head (669 m/2,195 ft) to the north-west and Devil’s Peak (1,001 m/3,284 ft) to the east. One of the world’s most famous landmarks, Table Mountain provides a dramatic setting for the harbour and city of Cape Town. Its northern face is a sheer precipice 3 km (2 mi) long, broken only by the deep cleft of Platteklip gorge. The top 600 m (2,000 ft) is formed of horizontal layers of sandstone, deposited on the floor of a shallow sea between 400 million and 500 million years ago, resting on a foundation of slates and granites.

The mountain is covered in fynbos—a major vegetation type unique to South Africa that includes proteas, ericas, and plants found nowhere else. A large variety of wildflowers blooms on the mountain, including Disa uniflora, a species of orchid known as the Pride of Table Mountain. The mountain top is rocky and treeless. Animal life includes baboons, dassies (the rock hyrax), and also Himalayan mountain goats descended from animals that escaped from the nearby Groote Schuur Zoo.

In summer a strangely neat cap of cloud often unrolls across the flat summit and drapes itself over the edges, forming a “tablecloth”. When Cape Town’s strong south-easterly winds collide with the mountains of the Cape Peninsula they are forced to rise. As soon as they reach the cooler altitudes of the mountaintops they condense into thick white clouds.

The National Botanical Gardens (1913) at Kirstenbosch on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain were originally a gift from Cecil Rhodes to the nation in 1895. About 9,000 of the 21,000 southern African flowering plants are cultivated in the 560-hectare (1,400-acre) garden. A cable car, built in 1929, takes visitors to the summit. It is used by over 300,000 passengers each year. There are also 350 recognized paths to the top.

Uranus (IPA: [ jʊˈɹeɪ.nəs, ˈjʊ.ɹə.nəs ], named after the Greek god of the sky (Uranus , Οὐρανός), is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gas giant, the third largest by diameter and fourth largest by mass. Its astronomical symbol is . The symbol is a combination of the devices for the Sun and Mars, as Uranus was the personification of heaven in Greek mythology, dominated by the light of the Sun and the power of Mars. It is also the alchemical symbol of platinum.

Uranus is the first planet discovered in modern times. Sir William Herschel formally discovered the planet on March 13, 1781; the other planets (from Mercury out to Saturn) have been known since ancient times, since they are visible to the naked eye. Uranus' discovery expanded the boundaries of the solar system for the first time in modern human history. It was also the first planet discovered using technology (a telescope) rather than the naked eye

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